An employee becomes bored in her job — unmotivated, unchallenged, unexcited. It’s a scenario oft-repeated in offices the world over, but for one particular assistant registrar, it resulted in the fabulous The Photographer’s Cookbook, from Aperture. The book features an impressive series of photographers’ favorite recipes and accompanying food-related snapshots — all compiled by one Deborah Barsel at the George Eastman Museum, who was searching for a fun side project. She had her supervisor’s OK, collected over 120 submissions, but then… left her registrar gig for graduate school. That was the Seventies and nearly 40 decades later, the museum has finally published her project — and it’s a roster of photography’s Who’s Who. Ed Ruscha shares a recipe for a cactus omelette, Ansel Adams offers up beer-poached eggs, Richard Avedon, a pot roast. Here are two recipes excerpted from the book, courtesy of fashion favorite Horst P. Horst and a then-emerging Stephen Shore.

Horst P. Horst’s Cucumber Salad

Marinate cucumbers, sliced very thin, in salt for at least 1 hour. The cucumbers have to be squeezed nearly dry.
Add dill, chopped, and sour cream.

Combine sugar, flour, cornstarch and salt in a saucepan, and stir in water gradually. Cook on medium heat until thickened. Add the beaten egg yolks gradually and return to a low heat, and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in the butter, lime juice, and rind and allow them to cool slightly. Pour into the baked pastry shell and cool.

Crust

Make graham cracker crust following instructions on box, but increasing all the quantities 50 percent.
Be sure to use brown sugar.

Topping

Make whipped cream with 1 container of heavy whipping cream and sweeten with sugar.